Giving up captaincy might help Ponting: Gatting

England great and former captain Mike Gatting offered some advice to the struggling Ricky Ponting, asking him to step down from captaincy in order to improve his batting form.

"If you took the captaincy off him, or he walks, Ricky might be a better player without having to worry about the trials and tribulations of a captain," Gatting was quoted as saying by 'The Daily Telegraph'.

Gatting who lead England to their last Ashes triumph in 1986-87 said relinquishing captaincy might help Ponting rediscover his form.

"All of a sudden, that might re-invent Ricky Ponting for three or four years which would be great for Australian cricket.

"Australia needs to decide what to do with him. It's not Ricky's fault, it's the players' fault collectively. The issue will be whether Ricky can just go back to being a player and a batsman in his own right," he said.

Ponting has been in one of the worst slumps of his career having crossed the three figure mark only once in his last 33 outings with the bat.

Gatting, however, said that Australia will find it tough to replace the present Aussie skipper.

"It says a bit about why Australia are in a mess at the moment. There's no standout candidate to replace him as captain, other than Clarke," Gatting said.

"Does Australia have a better option than Ricky? Maybe not, but they might decide they need a fresh outlook to get the team and Ricky going again." Gatting added.